Value changes from person to person. This is true in a host of customer situations, and income is not the most critical factor. Some people are willing to spend a much higher percentage of their income on a particular type of product simply because they find it more valuable. It’s not the income that makes the decision, it’s the internal assessment of value. As a blank page entrepreneur, it’s more important to understand a psychology than a demographic profile.
Read moreDo You Want What I Want? Value Changes from Object to Object
The need to create agreement about what constitutes value remains the most critical task for blank page entrepreneurs. The first step in creating agreement is to discover the psychological aspects of your customers that allow them to find value in your products and services. It’s not your products and services that have value, it’s how they are perceived, and people who value the same things do so for different reasons. Successful entrepreneurs know how to tap into these psychological dynamics.
Read morePsychological Alchemy: the Tools You Need to Create Value
Since all value is psychological, we must find tools that create value in the mind. There are three tools in our tool chest: knowledge (from information and other forms of content), emotion (created by design and branding) and experiences, which are a way we can combine the other two tools into something that may be greater than the sum of its parts.
Read moreValue Is In The Eye of the Beholder: you must understand it in order to create it
Value is largely emotional. It arises from aesthetic appreciation and jealousy and happiness and anger — our emotions both create and shape what we value. Value is also cognitive. What we understand — both what we know and what we don’t know — can increase or decrease the value we associate with things. Value is a product of our past experiences and future expectations. It is tied to hope and regret; to pleasant memories and future fears. As a result, value is deeply personal and entirely psychological.
Entrepreneurs don't make money. They create value that they exchange for money. To create value, you must first understand its nature.
Read moreYou Don’t Want Money: Why Would You Want Something That Doesn’t Exist?
To create a successful business — to create value that can be exchanged for money — blank page entrepreneurs must understand how to use communications to build value in the mind. Feelings exist. Products and services exist. Money does not. It is only a placeholder for the value that exists in the minds of your customers, your employees and everyone else you do business with. It’s your offering — your unique combination of products, services and communications — that will enable you to create the value that can be traded for money.
Read moreThere’s No Such Thing As Money: entrepreneurs don't "make money," they create value that can be exchanged for money
A trade cannot happen until an entrepreneur convinces a customer of the value of his offering. To become a successful entrepreneur you must understand the nature of value and how to create value in the minds of customers. Until you do, you won’t earn any money.
This is a critical distinction that blank page entrepreneurs must understand. An entrepreneur doesn’t “make money.” An entrepreneur creates value that is exchanged for money. Once you understand the difference, it can radically change the way you perceive your role.
Read moreIf You Just Believe... A Strong Brand Gives Us Faith
Although there are hundreds of reasons why a product may not work or a service may not meet our expectations, we generally don’t care about the details — we simply transfer our dissatisfaction to the brand itself and find a replacement somewhere else. A strong brand benefits consumers with the reassurance that these kinds of problems will not occur or that, if they do occur, they will be rectified quickly and painlessly.
Read moreYou Don't Have to be Afraid... A Strong Brand Allays Our Fears
Even a small purchase carries some risk. Will I like the flavor? How will it look after its washed? But if I make a purchase from a company that I already trust, I'm far less likely to worry. Building a strong brand alleviates fear and makes it easier to try new things.
Read moreHelp Me Understand... A Strong Brand Provides Clarity
Clarity is a critical part of a strong brand. It makes it easier to find the customers that you do want and to keep the customers you don’t want from expecting something you don’t provide.
Read moreWhat Will I Find? A Strong Brand Tells Us What to Expect
If you build a strong brand, you are creating expectations in the minds of your customers, and they will come to rely on these expectations. Expectations make us feel more confident about how we spend our money and you, the business owner, are responsible for creating those expectations. People will make judgments about your organization based on every detail they see and then decide if the price you charge is appropriate.
Read moreEeny, Meeny, Miney, Moe... A Strong Brand Makes Decisions Easy
We develop habits for two reasons: they make the decision process easier, and they provide some sort of reward. Making decisions is a cognitively intensive task, so once your mind receives a reward from a certain decision, you will be more likely to make the same decision in the future, decreasing the cognitive load.
Read moreWherefore Art Thou? A Strong Brand Helps Us Find What We Want
Without brands a trip to the grocery store would be very complex and difficult. We would have no idea what was in each box and bag, and we would have to sample many different products to find the ones we want. Brands don’t just serve business owners, they also serve consumers – logos, text, colors and the familiar aspects of each label and package help us find the things we want.
Read moreThe Bottom Line: the Brand is Your Most Valuable Asset
The strength of your brand is directly tied to the bottom line. In almost every modern market, customers have thousands of options to choose from; if we don’t like a business, it’s very easy to find someplace else to get what we want. A strong, positive brand — a strong mental image of your business — increases your ability to generate revenue and the odds of your long-term success.
Read morePick Me! Pick Me! Strong Brands Attract and Retain the Best Talent
Those brands that are attractive to employees reap solid financial rewards. They spend far less on recruitment and retention and the hires they do make tend to be highly qualified, since they have the largest pool of applications to choose from. But for small business owners a single hire can represent a significant investment and that hire can have a similarly significant impact on the overall success of the business. The smaller the business the more attention must be paid to who is hired and how well that employee does his job.
Read moreYou Can Trust Me! Strong Brands Create Good Relationships
Every person who interacts with your business, including your vendors, your banker, your lawyer and the guy that cleans your office, carries a perception of you and your business in her mind. This perception — this brand — makes decisions possible. All of the mental images that we’ve developed for your business come into play each time we make a decision about whether or not to make a purchase or sell you our products. A strong brand makes good relationships possible, and helps us make decisions about whether or not to help you succeed.
Read moreThere’s More Of Me To Love: Strong Brands Make Expansion Possible
A brand is something you own, just like a piece of equipment or a building. And the quality of your brand will either increase or decrease its value. If you take the time to craft a strong, positive brand, it can be leveraged to generate significant profits. But, just like cheap equipment or a building always in need of repair, a negative brand will cost your company money and, quite possibly, kill the business.
Read moreI Will Survive! Strong Brands Overcome Difficulties
A brand isn’t an insurance policy, but it can make a difference when the winds of fate blow in your direction. A well-built brand can provide some protection from the effects of negative events.
Read moreMake Them Disappear: Strong Brands Obscure the Competition
It’s not just large organizations that achieve mental saturation, even though we’re most familiar with this dynamic in the context of national brands. There are many local organizations that have built strong brands in the minds of their customers; they have made a large deposit in the mental brand bank, and receive interest by having you return to their business again and again.
Read moreTake me where you want to go: strong brands benefit new ventures
A strong, established brand decreases the risk associated with introducing new products and services. If a familiar store consistently chooses quality merchandise, you may be far more willing to try something new when it becomes available. A company with a strong brand can enhance or refine its offering with a great deal more confidence in the outcome.
Read moreI’ll Stay With You Forever: Strong Brands Create Loyalty
Entrepreneurs that want to establish a loyal following must provide experiences that make customers want to return. But when tasked with developing reasons for loyalty, business owners often default to slogans like “good service” or “low prices.” Because these are the most common answers they don’t differentiate your business and they aren’t compelling enough to create loyalty.
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